Spyro Reignited Trilogy perfectly recaptures the magic of the original games with stunning visuals and updated controls. Exploring colorful worlds and chasing gems feels like returning to childhood adventures. Pure nostalgic joy.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Going into it with zero nostalgia, I feel that the games are just... okay. They have enough diverse gameplay and design to be consistently engaging, though the threadbare plot can make the game become repetitive. Random difficulty spikes tarnish the experience as well. I'd recommend the game with heavy caveats that you understand what you are getting into - a PS1 game with a new coat of paint but the same dated design decisions.

Probably my greatest frustration is that falling from a ledge takes away a full life instead of just dealing a point of damage. With how wonky and unforgiving gliding is, it's far too punishing. Furthermore, Spyro is seen flying to levels in the intro and outro, yet somehow cannot remember to fly to save himself. Being unable to enter water in Spyro 1 is additionally frustrating. The sequels thankfully remedy some issues with the first game.

The game's FOV needs the ability to adjust it. For some reason I can only play at 144hz without getting seasickness, but oh well. In conclusion, the game is very much not for everyone, but can appeal to people who want a passable Mario-like experience, are curious about Spyro or want a nostalgia trip.

Okay, here's the thing, semantically: did I enjoy playing this? Yes. But would I recommend it? Um... no. I enjoy enjoyed the game because I had nostalgia for the old days of mascot platformers, but make no mistake, most mascot platformers were terrible, and Spyro is no exception. The game design choices are... baffling, to say the least. Why are enemies who are wearing metal armour invulnerable to fire when metals conduct heat extremely well and yet are vulnerable to being headbutt when armour is specifically for protecting against that kind of blunt trauma? Some enemies which look like they'd be tough go down with one hit and some enemies which look like they'd go down in one hit turn out to be rather tough. You can invert the flying but you can't invert the swimming. And so on, Very few things in the game feel intuitive, and the writing is nonsense even by the standards of its own genre -- made all the more uncanny now that the cutscenes are in shiny modern graphics.

If you didn't grow up with these games, I think there's very little chance you'll like them. You're better of playing the better examples of the genre like those made by Rare (Banjo Kazooie, for example) or refreshes of the genre like Yooka-Laylee.